So much Potential but delivered poorly
Sadly each of those ideas are rubbish. Let me explain. Firstly the taking over territory. There are 4 main areas, then each of those are split into another 5 even smaller areas (7 on the last area) each time you win 2 of the 3 races in that area you take over it and unlock parts and cars. Then when you take all the areas in the sectors you face the boss of that area to completely take over that sector. Fantastic you might say, But come on 3 races in each place then another 3 or so in the duel against the boss. So all in all you only get about 70 races in the entire game. And that is just to short.
Now i loved Most Wanted, mainly because of the cops and the chases. One of the best racing game features ever. And they've brought that on to Carbon. And they've advanced on the Pursuit breakers (you drop a large object on the cops basically) my favourite cop chase moment on Most Wanted is probably dropping a giant cement donut on the boys in blue. And in addition to that on the new 1 you can drop giant ice creams, a giant globe and (my favourite) the bones of a dinosaur! Its fantastic however they've taken away the rap sheet and milestones and thus made bounty (and cop chases altogether) completely pointless.
And the cars, the list is the best ever, more than 40 cars including, Lambos, Porsches, Alfas, mercs etc. And they've split them into 3 tiers. Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 (wow! what original names). And they also have 3 classes Tuner, Muscle and Exotic. And this tends to mean that you'll probably only have 1 from each tier.
Then we come to the city. As I said earlier its split into 4 sectors. Each of these is themed (but they arent that different) You start of in the exotic area. which isnt all that exciting, and then you can race in tuner and muscle which is slightly more exciting And finally you get a second exotic place which seems to be based on Las Vegas. The city is fairly big and has exciting Pursuit Breakers and such (although lackluster in the jump department) So surely a really good point in the game but it isnt because its not really that big. Its a moderate distance from 1 end to the other but there arent really very many roads. And its all very crude. Infact the whole game is crude and poorely presented.
However the Challenge Series is presented nicely. There are 12 different types of challenge. And 3 challenges on each. Firstly you have to do a bronze one, then you unlock a slightly harder Silver challenge then a Gold one. And if you beat that you unlock a prize of some sort. But you only get 36 challenges in total which once again isnt enough.
The story and the films are event better and slightly more frequent. The story is good (i wont ruin it for you) and the film cuts are interestng. But the end sucks.
Finally we come to the Canyon Race. Yes the awesome and creative idea that is the canyon race. And its brilliantly. Its as good in Carbon as the cops were in most wanted. You follow your opponent down a tight twisty canyon road. You have to try and stay as close as possibly to them and you get more or less points depending on how close you get. Then Your opponent follows you down eating into your points score. At the end if your points are in positive you win if the're negetive you lose. But there is a downside to these to: There arent enough of these either. You have 1 against each boss and you might get 2 others.
So to conclude Carbon is good in theory but when you finish it (which wont take you long) you will feel dissapointed. But don't worry there are 2 things you can do: A play Most Wanted because its a billion times better. or B: If your feeling flash go out and buy an Xbox 360 or a PS3 and get the Need For Speed Carbon HD, which has even better graphics even more cars (including the Bugatti Veyron!) and is much longer. Well what are you waiting for make your choice